There's a scene in Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man where the charismatic, intelligent leader of Harlem's youth movement, Tod Clifton, is reduced to hawking Sambo dolls on the street. Clifton does not have a street vendor's license, and when he is accosted by a group of white police officers, a struggle ensues, and he is shot dead while Ellison's narrator and others look on.

Couldn't help but reminisce over that scene in the wake of the needless death of Staten Island man Eric Garner, who was killed when NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo attempted to restrain him using a choke hold that has been prohibited by the department since 1994.

Clifton was selling wares without a license. For that, he was shot in broad daylight. Garner's alleged crime was selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. For that, he was choked to death.

Clifton's first name - Tod - means "death" in German. Eric can be loosely translated from the Old Norse as "One Ruler." And in Invisible Man, Tod is admiringly referred to as a "king" and a "prince."

Two kings, over 60 years apart, both cut down by the police for the most trifling of crimes.